The Fall of the Future
by Dragon34
Summary: The second story in a slightly AU trilogy. The boys leave Kiah behind and enter the Fast Forward future, however, the problems they left in the past have now destroyed the future, and the friends they left behind...are now enemies.
1. Prelude

Standard obligatory 'Not mine' disclaimer here.

This is the second story in a trillogy involving the Turtles and the four Guardians of the Gates of Heaven. In the first story, they met two of the guardians...the dragon and the tiger...and rescued them from the clutches of the Foot and defeated a demon bent on controlling the guardians, the Beast Courts, Heaven, and ultimately Earth. It was a hard battle but they won. Leo came to terms with his love for the dragon guardian, while the tiger made a good sparring partner for Raph. There was a very slight Gargoyles cameo as well. This is the continuation of that story....

* * *

**TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES – The Fall of the Future**

**------------------------------------------------------------------------ Prelude ------------------------------------------------------------------------  
- part 1 -**

Cookies should not be black.

That was the conclusion Kiah had come to reach. She frowned at the tray before her, as if the tray was somehow at fault for what lie upon its charred surface. She was positive that cookies should have a nice 'cookie' color. What that color was, was open for debate. Perhaps a golden-brown or a rich toasty yellow, but not black.

Definitely not black.

The chocolate chips were supposed to be black, and possibly raisins too, but there should definitely be a distinctive color difference between the chips and the dough. She'd learned this fundamental truth over the past few days.

Kiah removed the tray from the oven. There shouldn't be smoke either; or was that steam? No, no definitely smoke. It was with a heavy heart and a sigh that she pushed them off the tray onto a plate piled high with similar charcoal-like cookie shaped objects. "How does Mikey make it look so easy?"

The cookies were just one attempt in a string of several to try to make up for the events of the past few months with her new turtle friends. Despite a vigorous, yet futile, struggle to convince her that they didn't blame her for the events that happened within Sevarius' building, Kiah remained on her personal crusade. Yesterday it had been apple pie, the night before that, pot-roast. It was a string of aggressive attacks.

A string of aggressive failures.

The boys had been polite enough on the first night. None of them had said anything, and even tried to stomach the shoe leather called pot roast. They had quickly made excuses to leave. The next night, only Leo, Splinter and a sympathetic Donatello had remained available at mealtime. Raph had 'business' with Casey and Mikey decided it was a good time to practice the ninja art of invisibility.

Leo, being Kiah's 'special other' was stuck. That night, he'd proven his diligence with Splinter's mind-over-body lessons as he forced most of the dessert past his teeth…if only so it could sit in his stomach like an iron brick.

Master Splinter was a rat. Granted, he was a highly intelligent, master ninja with a palate as refined as his taste in culture and an upright, walking talking mutant…but a rat nonetheless. Splinter nibbled on the ruined foods with all the charm and grace of someone sampling fine wine. His only tell was that his tail twitched sporadically with every swallow.

Kind-hearted Donatello couldn't stand to see Leo and Splinter take the brunt of the damage, so he'd nobly stayed behind as well. He wasn't certain he could do it a third night however.

It was an almost-wish that something would attack the city. Tricertons, monsters, Purple Dragons, Foot Ninja, insane clowns...anything almost seemed better then the battle of the gag-reflex they faced at dinnertime again.

Raph had laughed at the irony. During the time when Kiah had lost her memory she wasn't a half bad as a cook, as long as she stuck with traditional Japanese food. Once her memory had returned, it was as if the returning memories had destroyed everything learned anew. Suggesting that Leo hit her in the head again had earned him a reproachful glare from Master Splinter, and a snarl from his brother in blue.

Anyway, Kiah thought, these cookies looked MUCH better than the pie did, and they didn't smell of sulfur like the pot roast, so her hopes were high. They looked like hockey pucks though, but cookies and pucks had a lot in common. Both were round, small...and black. Maybe after tonight she could try something harder…like lasagna. Besides, Leo seemed to like her cooking.

A bright light made her look up. Intense light drowned out the outline of the kitchen doorway and she had to avert her gaze. She could hear a strange buzz as well. Her interest piqued, she headed towards the living room and the sound. The guys were probably trying out one of Mikey's new video games. Then, as she came around the corner to the main room, the light and the sound suddenly vanished.

Kiah blinked a few times. The lair was quiet other then the soft mumbling of the television. Even Splinter was gone. She looked around for a moment before she went back to the kitchen. The boys had disappeared before without warning, but they always came back. She'd just finish the cookies, and wait.


	2. Chapter 1 Zixx's Proposal

**------------------------------------------------------------------------ Chapter one ------------------------------------------------------------------------  
- Zixx's proposal -**

"I'm not sure about this Zixx."

A man in a purple cloak smiled smoothly. "Leonardo…so candid. Come now…is this the face of a liar?"

Mikey leaned forward. "And of a con-artist, a thief, a smuggler, and um…" He struggled for a word.

"A criminal." Donatello finished flatly.

Raphael snorted. "You double crossed us last time, Zixx. So tell us why we should trust you _this time_?"

Zixx put his hands on his armor-clad chest in mock indignation. "Because this time I'm telling the truth." He leaned forward towards the display a bit, a smile crookedly flashing across his face. "I might be Zixx of the Black Blade, but I am not a monster. These are kids we're talking about here."

Leonardo rubbed the bridge of his nose through the material. "Ok…let's hear your…proposal … again, Zixx."

The smuggler leaned back with a suave nonchalant air. "Alright. On Jupiter's fourth moon, Callisto, there is a group of aliens and human colonists. Men, women, children, you know the routine. During their exploration of the planet, they uncovered some sort of strange Jovian virus…and its killing them. They need medicine, and quick, and I want your help in getting it."

Donatello crossed his arms. "Why doesn't the Pan Galactic Alliance take care of that?" He mused. "It seems like a very humanitarian thing to do."

Zixx nodded "It does…except the colonists are actually separatists and their government, which is a member of the Alliance by the way, won't recognize them. Because of that, the Alliance is unable to send aid, because it would be seen as aiding insurgents or something like that." The smuggler waved a hand nonchalantly through the air. "The Alliance says their hands are tied. So…." He let the word hang in the air.

Leonardo sighed. He trusted Zixx about as far as he could throw him, but it was hard to ignore the obvious plight of the colonists. He glanced around the faces of his brothers. All of them wore similar expressions of mistrust, but he knew they couldn't simply sit by and knowingly do nothing. "Fine, Zixx." He said. "But why do you need US to get the medicine? You're a smuggler, can't you smuggle some?"

"I could." Zixx laughed now. The turtles always thought the worst of him; it was funny. "But you see…"

"There's always a catch." Raphael muttered flatly.

"But you see," Zixx continued, ignoring the interruption. "The medicine they need is rare, and the only place I could find we could acquire some without, ah…Alliance notice, is located in a hidden Triceraton warehouse on the asteroid Ceres." He chuckled. "Figured since you guys were trained ninja, AND you're familiar with the Triceretons…sneaking in would be easy as pie."

"Just how easy IS pie?" Michelangelo asked no one in particular. "Is it hard as a rock? Good as new? Right as rain?" Mikey mused a bit. "Pie isn't very easy to make…well a cream pie is, but apple pie, or cherry…mmmm…."

Donny smiled. "Maybe they refer to how it goes down easy?"

"Yeah." Mikey agreed. "But remember Kiah's pie? Eh, not so much."

Michelangelo clamped his mouth shut as Raphael slapped him in the head. "Fine Zixx…" Raphael said as he lowered his hand. "You playin' taxi for this? Or do we have ta find our own ride?" As the smuggler offered his ship, Raph shrugged. "Fine. When are we leavin'?"

A slow smile spread across Zixx's sculptured face. "Now!" He slammed his hand down on a button and the turtles evaporated in a mist of particles.

The room came into focus slowly and Donatello shook his head. He hated traveling by transmat; it always left him feeling light-headed. He looked around. His brothers were here and they were definitely aboard Zixx's ship. Great, he thought, this is probably a trap…for us.

He didn't particularly enjoy the prospect of working with the smuggler, given their history together, but if what he said was true then they couldn't ignore the sick colonists. It didn't matter they were fleeing their government, only that they needed help.

"Everyone ok?" Leo asked after a moment. Everyone nodded and he headed towards the doorway. "Come on, let's go see Zixx."

"Hey guys," Mikey asked as they headed up the corridor to the bridge. "If the colonists have been infected with a disease, how are we going to keep from getting it too?"

Donny shrugged. "I'd assumed we'd administer a dosage of the medicine to ourselves first."

"Nope." Zixx replied as they piled onto the small flight deck. "I think we'll just drop the cargo from the air." He glanced back at the turtles. "I, for one, would rather NOT risk an infection." He muttered.

Raph leaned over the smuggler's shoulder and Zixx glanced up briefly. "So, what's in this for you, Zixx? You're not one to do something for free or from the goodness of your heart."

Zixx was silent a moment. "I'm truly hurt by that Raphael." He said with a wounded tone. "There happens to be a lot of kindness in my heart of gold." When Raphael's gaze didn't waver, he shrugged and admitted, "Ok…see, there's this girl…."

A smug smile crossed Raph's face and he moved away from the smuggler. He loved being right.

"How are you going to find Ceres?" Donatello asked looking over Zixx's calculations.

"Well, it's one of the biggest asteroids, and since the Tricereton's breathe that sulfur-nitrogen mix…I'm scanning for concentrations of nitrogen and sulfur cross-referenced with asteroids fitting Cere's composite profile."

Donatello nodded. It was a good idea. Most of the asteroids did not have atmospheres and those that did, had thin ones. Nitrogen was a common substance in the solar system in its frozen form or in trace atmospheric amounts. However, upon the asteroids, it was rare. One would have to specifically search for the combination of the two.

He watched as Zixx referred to several star charts in an effort to narrow down the asteroid's last known location. Nevertheless, it was a somewhat slow and boring process and eventually the turtles wandered away on the small ship. They gathered in the lounge area and slumped over the seats. "Leo," Mikey complained. "You sure this isn't a trap?"

Leonardo looked over at Mikey incredulously; how was he supposed to know something like that? However, his youngest brother had good instincts; it certainly _felt_ like a trap of some sort. "I don't know Mikey." He said finally. "Just keep our eyes open…I have a strange feeling about this."

His brother nodded. The feeling was mutual among the four. Leo would have spoke more but Zixx chose that moment to return.

"Hey guys. "He said, leaning against the doorjamb. "Found it. Grab something to eat, and there are some breath masks in the storage locker back there." As he turned to leave he paused. "I…appreciate you doing this. We'll be there in a few minutes so strap in…its rough in the Belt."

Donny poked through the locker. It was out of character for Zixx to thank them for their help. Maybe this trip was legit. Then again, Zixx was a con artist. He brought out four masks and handed them out. "Hey maybe someone should send a message to Cody and Master Splinter and tell them where we're at?"

"Or at least tell him we'll be back soon." Raph put in.

Mikey got up and went to a console. "I'll do it." Within moments, the message was sent.

Suddenly the ship rocked violently and almost threw the ninja teens to the ground. "Woah!" Raph exclaimed. "We must be in the Asteroid Belt."

Leo nodded, glancing out a nearby porthole before heading to the cockpit.

"Thought I told you to strap in?" Zixx mentioned as Leo came into the small room. "Uh…what are you doing?"

Beside Leo, Donatello squeezed past and took a seat in the co-pilot's position. "Helping you keep us alive." Donny replied smoothly.

Grudgingly Zixx accepted the help. It wasn't easy to pilot the small craft through the asteroid belt, even with two pairs of eyes and hands. Numerous small projectiles careened about the space before the ship, any number of them capable of causing fatal damage to the hull. It forced Leonardo to either strap in or meet the ground in a very painful way.

Zixx's words haunted Leo's thoughts briefly, as they maneuvered towards Ceres. He was doing all this for a woman. What sort of woman would make the smuggler act so? For a moment, he was curious about this woman but then his thoughts turned backwards. To Kiah.

Even here, in this new life, he missed her. She, like April and Casey, would be long dead. She'd never even known what happened to him and his brothers, and he would never be able to tell her. Had she wondered? Had she cried? What about Tokutaru? What about the war they had been fighting?

He didn't even know where she was buried.

Leo was left with no more time to dwell upon thoughts of the past as the ship slid up to Ceres. Zixx pointed. "Look, there's a port we can use." He pointed out a small access port partially hidden in a crater.

Donatello took a closer look. "That's not a port…that's an exhaust vent."

Zixx glanced at Donny, even as he continued to maneuver the ship towards the crater. "Won't that work?"

Paused by the question, Donny looked back at Leo, who nodded. "Yeah, Donny. Put us down there."

Once the ship settled Zixx stood by the lower cargo doors. "Luckily Ceres has a bit of an atmosphere so you won't go POP when you step outside. However, my ship's energy shield can seal up and act as a localized airlock." He shrugged a bit, as if it didn't matter either way and handed Donatello a small disk before explaining that it contained a description of the medicine. "I'll keep the engines warm for you."

Raph crossed his arms. "What's the matter Zixx? Not going with us?" He didn't truly think the smuggler intended on accompanying them, but Zixx had impressive fighting skills. They might come in handy.

Zixx didn't see it that way. Instead, he laughed. "If thought I could sneak in there and get the meds…do you think I would have called you guys?"

The turtle in red simply had no response for that, being it was true, and so shrugged and rejoined the others. They were looking around a small portable holographic emitter.

"…have a simple layout of their base." Donatello was saying, pointing out key structural details. "The storage area should be in this area here, as it's the largest open area without ships docked in it." He flipped the display off. "A complex this size could have a considerable number of people in it."

Leo nodded. "Alright then, let's keep our guard up."

"Is it ever down?" Mikey quipped lightly.

Something about this just didn't sit right with Leonardo and he refused to allow himself the humor. "Let's just get in and get out."

"Woah." Raph commented as he reached up and slapped the controls for the air lock. "Touchy."

When Leo didn't respond, Raph shrugged and let the matter drop. He was first out the airlock and as his brothers joined him, he removed the grating that covered the exhaust port.

Within seconds all four ninjas were padding silently down the metal tube. A slight stale breeze blew past them headed towards freedom, but they ignored it. At the end was a large slow moving fan that creaked loudly in the silence of the thin atmosphere.

Donatello panted lightly. It seemed like forever ago that he and his brothers had been prisoners on the Triceraton homeworld, but this brought those memories crashing back to the surface. The dank sulfur odor of the atmosphere, the low throbbing hum of Triceretron mechanics, that almost overwhelming stench of the Triceretons themselves, all worked to pull memories, separated by a lifetime, back into clear focus. He could smell the grunge of food cooking somewhere too, and it could have turned his stomach, had he let it.

As it was, he, like his brothers, worked to regulate their bodies that were unused to the nitrogen rich atmosphere. The breathers they wore helped some and so did their mind-over-body training, but it was still a strain. Donatello chewed on the end of the tube thoughtfully as he watched Leo jump through the lethal blades gracefully.

The others followed suit and, after a brief check for spectators, Don opened the access panel that let them out of the ventilation system. The turtles found themselves in a mechanical room, dirty and untended. Good. No one would notice them.

"Donny." Leo whispered. "Where are we?"

It was only matter of a few buttons and Donatello placed their position as just down the hall from the cargo bay.

Raph listened at the door. "I don't hear anyone." He stated before he opened the door to look around.

The hallway was long and almost ran the full length of the complex. The sounds and smells of food and revelry were much louder now, coming from a large double-doored room a few dozen meters away. It seemed like Tricereton lunch hour. Maybe luck would be with them.

This time Mikey was first out the door and he crept down the hall away from the smell of food. A part of him wondered what it was they were eating. As he remembered, the food on Tricera wasn't all that bad, in fact, some of it was downright delicious, even if he couldn't identify it, or even name it.

In a line behind Mikey, the others snuck into the cargo hold soundlessly and found a place among the crates to hide. "Ok…" He looked dauntingly around the dozens of stacked crates around him. "Which one Donny?"

The brainiac sighed. Why was it always on him? Then he shrugged it away and turned back to his handheld device. He held it up briefly and then shook his head. "No good, I'm afraid." He reported. "Those crates are proof against any manual scanner."

Mikey looked over the device in Donny's hand. "Can't you use your Tricorder?" He whined, not at all looking forward to a manual search.

"No Mikey." Don explained patiently. "Those crates are for smuggling, therefore, they are coated or lined with material that can defeat the handheld scanners that customs agents use. We'd need large ship-board scanners with a VERY narrow-beam threshold emitter…" he stopped talking. He'd lost Mikey around right around the word 'crates'.

Leo understood. "Alright." He said. "Spread out. The containers have labels. We need to hurry. Lunch can't last all afternoon."

The ninja's moved around the room in search of their prize. The crates weren't difficult to open, as most of them weren't locked. Those that were, were made note of, and Donny came to each of those to hack the locking mechanism. They found every sort of small-time weapon, some exotic drugs from other planets, a few rare textiles, and several boxes of illegal cybernetics and electronics.

Growing impatient and apprehensive, Raph yanked open another crate expecting to see more of the same. This time however, he found a crate filled with coarse white sand. Intrigued, he sifted through it and brought up a small metal container the size of a loaf of bread. On its surface was a digital readout of its internal temperature

He thought about it briefly. Hadn't Zixx said something about the medicine needed a climate-controlled environment? He quickly called out to his brothers, who gathered around the container as well.

Donatello examined the smaller box and then carefully opened it to peek at the contents. After a moment he confirmed it. "This is it." He said brightly.

While Donny confirmed their findings, Raph and Mikey dug through the sand and retrieved four more small containers like the first one. It was all of them and hopefully five would be enough. As Leo turned around, he announced their intention to leave.

But, the words died midsentence as he came nose to nose with a tricereton.


	3. Chapter 2 Space Chase

**------------------------------------------------------------------------ Chapter Two ------------------------------------------------------------------------  
- Space Chase -**

Three minutes ago...

The Tricereton minion wasn't happy about his chores. While the others ate and sat around, he was stuck doing rounds and inventory. With only a thin sandwich to appease the appetite of an upright dinosaur, he was not only sour, but he was still hungry. He wasn't about to complain aloud though. Anything like that and his probation period, and chores, would only lengthen. The young Tricerton desperately wanted in this gang.

If the most they made him do was chores and cleaning work, he could handle it, even if it was a bit boring. He was determined to prove he was a worthy addition.

The base was solid, isolated, and finding intruders in the cargo bay was the last thing on the initiates mind. No, he was much more interested in finishing this circuit and getting back to his hot grog before it turned into cold grog.

As he came around a tall set of crates, four green turtles destroyed his well-laid plans.

For a full second both turtle and Triceraton locked eyes. Like two animals in the wild. For a full second all were frozen, a static moment in time where beady black eyes bored into masked turtle eyes and neither moved, neither said a word.

The Triceratron broke. He spun around, quicker than his bulk would suggest and reached out towards the wall-mounted button that would sound the alarm. Just as quick four turtles leapt at him, attempting to halt the action. Four weapons, sai, ninjaken, nunchaku, and bo, smashed into his body and he stumbled forward, injured and unconscious.

It all happened so quickly. Moreover, the massive Tricereton was unconscious before he could register the state. There is the matter of Newton's second law of relativity; an object in motion tends to stay in motion. As such, the Tricereton continued to its forward plunge and he impacted the wall.

Unfortunately, as his body slid down the wall it rolled over the alarm button, squashing it. Klaxons, loud and obnoxious, sounded throughout the hideout.

"Shit." Raphael cursed from the cargo bay.

"Shit." Zixx cursed from the bridge of his ship.

The four turtles took off in a dead sprint down the hallway; stealth gone right out the window. The door to the mechanical room was nearby. A collective groan passed through the fleeing turtles as several Triceretons emerged into the hallway to investigate the noise. One just happened to step out nearly on top of Michelangelo.

Within a second, Michelangelo had leapt into the air and did a quarter turn. His foot spiked out and caught his horned enemy across the face. While the move was pretty, it wasn't enough to stun the dinosaur for more than a moment. As it stumbled to the side, its massive fist swung out reflexively in a blind attempt to clobber its assailant.

Quicker and lighter, Michelangelo bent backwards a bit as the fist sailed harmlessly over his head. As he leaned back however, he caught the wrist and easily turned the massive bulk of the gangster against him into an agile throw that ended with a Tricereton against the wall. Even Mikey winced a bit at the sound of cracking dinosaur bones.

"Hey guys…Do you think Zog's relatives are here?" Mikey turned and started to run again.

"No time for that Mikey…keep running. " Leonardo scolded. There were no enemies between them and the mechanical room. Maybe they'd get out of here without more of a fuss.

Donatello reached the door first and rushed inside. As his brothers joined him, he quickly locked out the door controllers. "Ok," he said breathlessly, "That should keep them out long enough for us …" He was cut-off as the door was forced open an inch. "…to escape?"

Two Triceretons on the other side heaved and grunted in their feat of strength to open the mech-room door. There were soft-bodied enemies on the other side that needed a good slow death and this thick metal door wasn't going to stop them. Not for long anyway. The door opened another inch.

Raph blinked and then pulled the grating down from the main air handler. "Let's go guys." He paused and gave Mikey a leg up into the ductwork first, followed by Donny. The door slid open another few inches, the motorized system that normally held the door was about to break down. A pair of eyes peeked through the opening, followed quickly by gun barrels.

Energy blasts thundered into the machinery around them, throwing up sparks and small bits of shrapnel. Raph couldn't help but cry out in surprise and anger. "Gah! Those horn-heads don't give up!" He had half a mind to run back to the door and show them the pointy end of his sai next time they peeked through the gap.

"No time for that Raph." Leo said, reading the deadly intent in his brother's eyes. "Up you go."

The turtle in red didn't argue as Leo popped him up and into the duct. As he turned to reach his hand down to Leo, a lucky blast caught Leo in the shoulder and he stumbled away from Raph's outstretched hand. Raph immediately jumped back down. "LEO!"

More irritated at the moment then hurt, Leo couldn't contain his annoyance that his brother had come back down. "Get back up there Raph. GO!" He quickly picked himself up, and ducked another volley of shots. There was blood streaming down his arm, but he barely felt it. In a few more seconds, the doors would be wide enough to allow the Triceretons to enter the mech-room.

"Nuh-uh." Raph shook his head. They needed a distraction. He bolted across the room towards a large square panel on the wall and flung the doors open. Inside were rows and rows of switches. Circuit breakers. Shit, he thought. Which one? There was one large one right at the bottom. Good enough. He shoved the handle down, and the building plunged into darkness.

Leo had to admit...Raph certainly had his moments. At the door, the horn-heads were confused enough that they stopped firing, though they did resume their work on the door. "Raph!" Leo said again. "Let's go!"

"After you, fearless leader."

Leo wasn't in the mood to belabor the point with his brother, so he accepted the leg up and then yanked Raph into the duct behind him. Quickly they crawled forward, reaching the fan, which slowly crawled to a power deprived stop. Mikey and Don waited for them anxiously, and as four they returned to Zixx's ship.

"GO Zixx go!!" Mikey cried out as Raph ran on-board. The airlock sealed behind him and the turtles strapped in, preparing for a bumpy ride. Already a couple of Tricereton ships had started to launch determined to find and destroy the invaders.

"Dammit," Zixx swore with irritation. The ship began to lift off. The moment it did, it showed up on the Triceraton's radar and the two ships that were out, along with a few gun emplacements, all swiveled their way. "Thought you guys were supposed to be ninjas? And ninja's were supposed to be quiet, invisible…unnoticed." He grumbled, turning the ship sharply to avoid a volley of plasma fire.

Donatello once again strapped into the co-pilots position. "So sue us." He retorted with a bit of irritation himself. "At least we got what we came for."

Zixx gave a non-committal grunt as his ship quickly outdistanced the base gun ports; however, the smaller attack crafts doggedly remained behind him. "We still have two on our tail…" The two rear facing guns weren't enough to slow them down.

Mikey glanced out a small window at the two pursuing craft. "Ooh…" he said. "The force is strong with this one." A hand reached out and slapped his head. "Ow!"

"Ok guys, just hang on." Zixx called back as he pushed the engines to full. Inertia shoved everyone on board into the seats tightly. The ship increased its speed exponentially and they quickly pulled away from their pursuers, although they didn't lose them.

Donatello looked out the view ports at the asteroids rushing past at dangerous speeds. Even as he did, the ship shuddered each time a rock slammed against the shields. Shield strength was decreasing.

It was a testament to Zixx's ability as a pilot that they didn't die immediately. With almost nonchalant grace and expert timing, the smuggler was able to lure one of the Tricereton ships into a rendezvous with the vertical side of an asteroid and manage to come around _behind_ the other.

"So what are you waiting for Donatello?" Zixx said with a hint of amusement. "Send those guys to dinosaur heaven…or dino-hell…or whatever….FIRE!"

Donatello was no stranger to death. How many foot ninja had died because of him? Well, that number was lost years ago. But even still, he found the notion of death, especially unnecessary killing, distasteful and more importantly, dishonorable. There were other ways.

Quickly his two digits flashed across the controls for the ships weapon system, making minute adjustments to the targeting programming. Within the space of a second the gun fired, and crippled, rather than destroyed, the attacking craft.

As they zoomed away, the attack craft turned and limped back to its home base, the pilot humiliated, but alive, and Donatello's personal code of honor remained intact.

"…the hell?" Zixx grumbled as he watched the scene play out. "I just had those calibrated too." Donatello could swear the smuggler sounded disappointed. "Alright Don, plot us a course for Callisto."

It was child's play for the ninja genius to use the simple navigational system aboard Zixx's ship. Callisto was Jupiter's fourth moon and why anyone would try to colonize there was beyond even his mental capability. The podcasts were thick with stories about the native creatures on the Jovian moon. Entire mining expeditions had gone missing with no clues, no survivors, no traces. Ships that had landed there had disappeared likewise and no one could offer anything other than conjecture.

The stories of course drew treasure hunters, adventurers, and other more shady types to the small moon, but unexplained incidents would happen to them as well. Sometimes they would find nothing at all, other times, they would come back mind-wiped, or so traumatized even deep brain recall was unable to reconstruct their fragmented minds.

Eventually, the Senate blacklisted the planet and people wrote it off as an urban legend once it stopped making headlines. Trade routes didn't go by the moon, so it eventually disappeared into obscurity. Donatello figured this was why these aliens had chosen this planet to colonize, either that or they crashed there and had no other choice.

But, if they were refugees, then surely the Council would have reached out toward them, in friendship if nothing else. They would have been offered aid, or passage to Earth at the least. If they were in fact, NOT refugees, and instead they were political outcasts, or even criminals, then he and his brothers, along with Zixx, would be committing a felony.

That last thought worried Donny. Leo wasn't the only one who had a bad feeling about this, but as he continued to help navigate the Belt, now at speeds quite less then breakneck, he glanced over at the smuggler. Zixx might have questionable intentions, and a less than stellar reputation towards con-artistry, but he did have morals. Don couldn't see the smuggler being swept away in the intricate web of politics, nor the savagery of serious crime.

Becoming the Council's number one most wanted was far, far, too troublesome.

The turtle raised an eye ridge unconsciously, still lost in thought. What then could be Zixx's real reason for the help? Could it be a woman who somehow urged him into this, as he said? It wasn't that outlandish; after all, he was known to be a player as well. She wasn't on Callisto, that much was certain or else he'd land and deliver the medicine personally. Perhaps the woman had a relative there?

And what exactly was this medicine? Azasocrasin. He wasn't familiar with the specifics but he knew it was used to treat various forms of fungal type infections. And since it was an antibiotic, it made sense it was kept in a climate controlled environment. Donatello glanced over at Zixx, who was distracted running ship diagnostics, before he accessed the galactic web searching for diseases and conditions related to the drug Azasocrasin.

"Don't bother." Zixx said after a moment. "I'll tell you everything you want to know." It was no surprise the turtles still didn't trust him completely. He didn't blame them though. "From what I know, the refugees are political outcasts from their planet. They crashed on Callisto. No, they didn't seek sanctuary from the Alliance council, seems like they didn't want it. They have been infected with the Chronia virus, a bacterium that attacks the digestive system and eventually causes your body to consume itself."

Donatello shuddered and Zixx continued. "A woman that I want to get to know better, if you know what I mean, has a friend in that group of outcasts. She asked me to save him, and in return…she'd 'reward' me nicely."

The turtle in purple stared blankly at Zixx for a long moment and then deadpanned. "So…we're risking our necks so you can get laid." It was a statement.

Zixx looked out the forward view screen long enough to formulate a response to that. He couldn't just answer yes, even though it was true, there were lines that needed to be maintained. "No." he said finally. "You're doing it to save the lives of innocent refugees. Think about it THAT way," he allowed just a trace of righteous indignation to creep into his voice. "and leave my private life out of the equation."

The turtle let the matter drop without another word, and Zixx said nothing more on the subject. The ship had moved to an area safe for hyperspace travel and he quickly set about programming the navigational computer.

With a sense that the somewhat less than jovial conversation was over, Donatello returned to join his brothers. He found them quiet and subdued. Michelangelo was lost in his I-tunes, Raph was asleep and Leo stared into space.

A frown crossed his features when he noticed Leo had done nothing about the wound in his arm. With a sigh he gathered up a few medical supplies and sat down next to his oldest brother. "Leo," he said gently though admonishingly. "You shouldn't just let this go." Without waiting for permission Don started to dab at the shallow gash with a healing ointment.

Leonardo seemed to notice Donatello's presence when the slight sting of the ointment prodded him from his thoughts. "Oh, uh…sorry." He muttered.

Donny sighed again and noticed Leo was absently rubbing a small kyanite gemstone set in a hemp bracelet. He recognized it. Kiah had given it to him to celebrate their one-month anniversary. She'd said it had some sort of power but she hadn't elaborated. However, Leo wore it constantly, underneath his wristbands and it was rare for him to have it out.

Everyone knew talking about Kiah or Tokutaru was a sore subject for the ninja leader. Even Splinter avoided bringing them up whenever possible. The dragon and the tiger, like Casey and April, were shadows of the past, and however painful it was to think of them, what was done, was done.

"Yeah, Leo's been thinking about Kiah a lot lately." Raph commented from the side. Donatello hadn't realized the turtle in red had awoken. Raph continued to talk, despite Leo's glare. "I miss sparring with that over-sized kitten. Ya ever think about what happened to them?"

Donatello started to frown at Raph for deliberating pushing Leo's buttons, but before he could speak his opinion on that subject Leo answered, his voice curiously devoid of emotion. "They're dead."

The bluntness of the response startled Raph briefly but then he chuckled. "I dunno Leo. Think about it."

Leonardo didn't respond immediately. Instead, he turned back towards the porthole. But Donny's interest was piqued. He'd long wondered what might have become of the Shi-Tenno, though he had a theory. A theory he'd never given voice to, in deference to his leader's feelings.

Even Michelangelo never mentioned the Shi-Tenno, and he'd arguably been closest with Kiah the longest. Raph and the tiger had regular knock down drag out sparring matches that ended with them laughing and Kiah or Donny healing up the wounds. But everyone knew the subject was taboo, as least as far as Leo was concerned.

"What's there to think about?" Leo said snappishly.

Raph leaned forward on his knees with a devilish grin. "Oh maybe the fact that they ain't dead."

Leo stared at his brother evenly, dark-amber eyes narrowed in suspicion, but Raph casually leaned back in his own chair and closed his eyes.

Even Donatello waited for a further explanation, but Raph sat there silently, pretending to sleep, and a tiny spark of annoyance lit. _Dammit Raph,_ he thought, _You're really trying to start a fight. _"Raph..." Donny started.

"Huh?" Raph said and pretended to wake up. "Talking to me?"

Enough was enough. Leo unbuckled and left the bay.

When Raph chuckled Donatello turned on him. "Raph, for what inane purpose do you deliberately initiate fights with Leo? We're on a cramped ship. The two of you having a disagreement is tedious at best."

Raphael eyeballed his brainy younger brother. "Who's fighting? I just asked a question and he stormed out." When Don's gaze grew stonier, Raph sat forward. "Aw come on brainiac, don't tell me you, of all people, didn't come up with the same theory about Tokutaru and Kiah."

"Of course I did." Don answered loftily. There was NO way Raph could or would come up with something this cerebral before Donny had considered such a possibility. "But it is only a theory." He countered. "And since Leo is hurt enough over facts I saw little reason to add to that with supposition."

"So you think they are alive too then."

The turtle in purple paused. Sure that was a possibility. The Shi-Tenno were immortal spirits inhabiting human hosts. But those hosts were human, with human limitations. "Perhaps," Don conceded. "But not in the way we think. The possibility is strong that, should we meet them again, they will be completely different people."

Raph stared at his brother for a moment then shrugged. "Yeah, you're probably right."


End file.
